Tag Archives: sun

One of the last photos taken on my recent trip through Utah, Arizona and Nevada. This was in the center of Utah. I watched this storm build for a while and stopped to take several images of it… this was when I finally started to see rain falling off to the right and I wasn’t sure how long it would be before I got hit with it, so I stopped and took several exposures for an HDR. I love how the underside of the clouds is so richly textured, and I’m a sucker for sunrays so the strong light beams are incredible to me. The dappled light on the ground was an extra gift here, as I really wanted to get some light on the ground and for the most part it was in shadow. HDR for HDR Friday… enjoy!

Thanks so much for viewing my work here. If you are interested, my website has lots to explore and enjoy. www.kelleybard.com. Feel free to browse!

One of my favorite roads in America, Route 66 runs through the Southwest and has sections that are found as far east as Chicago. It’s an old road, the main artery into the west for much of the 20th century but largely abandoned now. The sections that are open go through beautiful, open country with hardly any traffic. Some of the towns located on it are hanging on by a thread, others are completely shuttered. It’s eerie.

You also find these old Burma-Shave ads all over the place. They are priceless: odd, quirky, mostly dark humor that keeps you interested in what the next sign down the road has to say. I pulled over here before a big curve to take in the road, valley, and sign. The resulting image (3 exposures processed in HDR) still didn’t give the aged feeling to it, so I worked on the image with some textures and detailing. I like how the warmed up colors really highlight the old look of the sign, and the sky is much more interesting with the layers of textures. Overall, a photo I really enjoy.

I planned this to be a color image, but I liked the black and white version so much that I included it. I guess that goes to show that you can’t always plan out a photo… there is always an unexpected element to it!

My first published image using the wide angle lens. Like it!?? I’m loving it, although I am still learning what works with it and what doesn’t.

Single image HDR- it had to be that way because it was a very windy day (see the snow blowing off the mountains?) and the branches were blurred in the normal and light exposures. I did the HDR thing on the normal exposure then brought in the darkest image’s tree to get the focus right and blur to a minimum. I also had fun running this through Topaz Adjust twice, to get a different look for the clouds and for the ground and tree. Fun times in Photoshop!

See this and others on my website http://www.kelleybard.com, or the links to the right (facebook, flickr, twitter, buzztown, etc.).

This was just a fun idea that I had, and was able to set up and execute quickly when I saw the pretty sunset here a few days ago. I think this has possibility, I’m hoping to get more chances to follow it up with similar shots (I had to crop this quite a bit to get it to work). The sunset and sky were beautiful, though. and I’m glad I got the eyeball in focus!

See my best images at http://www.kelleybard.com, or on facebook, flickr, buzztown or twitter. Enjoy them all and feel free to comment on any and all of them.

This photo got a bit “extreme HDR-y” which I apologize profusely for. But, I like the shallow depth of field, I love the composition of the stairs, and I really like the bokeh-ed plant in the top right. So even with the problems, I felt like putting it out there for my daily photo. I’ll head there soon for a less sunny image, once the plants are growing. Summer really sounds wonderful right now, I’m excited about hiking and, of course, outside photography!

Other images are shown on my facebook and flickr pages (see links at right) and on http://www.kelleybard.com. The top rated photos from you guys often go onto my website as well, so feel free to comment on my work!

Sometimes I come across a photo which I like, but know it’s just not 100% great… this was one like that. I liked the idea and the image, but in the original, the ladybug and the leaves were almost the same color (taken in Yosemite in early December). There was also some distracting elements- the leaves in the lower right corner were in focus, but which dragged the eye downward (I felt). So I played, experimenting. I think my weekend pictures will be more on this level from now on- I’ll still post fav images if I am really in the mood, but I’ll try to save the great ones for the week. That means, though, that I’ll have more experimental and fun ones on the weekends, and sometimes those get the most responses. So don’t walk away on the weekends… unless you have a life or something (unlike me).

Anyways, OnOne PhotoTools has been a good help lately, so I went there. I’m finding that I use that for blur and glow pics mostly, and I wanted to explore more filters. This photo got the antique color filter and the 81 warming filter. I also went back into Photoshop and Lightroom and blurred the area around the ladybug (masking rocks) and played with the ladybug’s coloring as well.

A fun experiment, for sure.

Enjoy my photography at www.kelleybard.com. This one isn’t there yet, but I depend on the comments of others to tell me what is good and what isn’t, so I factor in responses here, on facebook and on flickr to get ideas of what to post in the future.

**Speaking of future posts, I have a photo which I’ve been working on since November which I’m finally happy with- that will be my photo tomorrow. For Boulderites, it’s an image from one of your amazing local sites. Check back to see the image- hopefully stunning HDR (already submitted to hdrspotting.com as well). **

**The 2 images which I created for Japanese Earthquake support are on my site at www.kelleybard.com/donation. I have had many visits but not many purchases and I’d love comments on why you think that may be. I really hope to be able to help in this small way. I really, really like the idea of giving back, though, so I will be working to build relationships and add images monthly or so which will be “donation” images. Suggest some organizations and causes to me, I’ll be working with the companies to bring some knowledge and hopefully some financial support their way in the future.**

I really like the memorials on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. I took this image (or set of images, as this is a cropped HDR from 3 exposures) in the late summer. This is part of the Korean War Memorial, which was something I stumbled across on a past trip… literally it is a section I had never visited before, and I was walking in the dusk when I came across these statues- in a line, coming out of the trees, apparently on guard for attack… I love the details, the placement, the idea… I was glad to get to take this photograph, and hopefully it is a worthy image of the statues. The original photos had a large chunk of burned out sky which was very boring and distracting. I tried to add textures but I still didn’t like the image much, it took so much away from these statues. I finally got the idea to crop it, and I like this much more. It loses a bit of the nice sunbeams, but overall I’m happier with it now.

Uploaded to www.kelleybard.com, as well as my facebook, flickr and buzztown pages. I would suggest being a fan on facebook or buzztown, as you can find out about deals (I also post about them here). My website has the best resolution of them all, though, for viewing the images. So there are reasons to check each! 🙂